EAST LANSING - The Spartan football team is now in the dog days of spring practice. Fifth-year head coach Mark Dantonio wants his ballclub to keep making progress and avoid complacency during the final two practices before the Green and White game.

"Entering this last week of practice, I think the major thing that we need to continue to do is try and get better every single day," explained Dantonio. "Where we have tried to dwell on every single day is get three percent better or whatever you can do.

"We came all of this way last year with 11 wins, but we don't want to plateau. We want to continue to pedal downhill. That is the message to our players and our players have responded very positively throughout the entire spring."

The Spartans continue to deal with mounting injuries this spring. But those setbacks will not prevent Michigan State from having an actual spring football game rather than a controlled scrimmage that many other schools opt to have at the end of spring.

"I think it is good for our football team," Dantonio said. "I think it shows we have some depth and it gives everybody an opportunity to play. We can go two deep at every position even with all of our guys out, so we will do that."

Dantonio indicated that his team would play four 10-minute quarters. He also said that the program would pay tribute to recently deceased Michigan State All-Americans Lynn Chadnois and Norm Masters."They will be our honorary captains," Dantonio said. "Hopefully someone from their family can participate. We want to make sure that we recognize them."